“A mercenary killer?”
Gregory shrugged and Keegan’s shoulders moved up and down as he chuckled silently. The smirk never left his face.
“You said to bring people that I can trust. I trust Keegan to keep me alive and to follow his instructions explicitly. I was under the impression that who I chose to bring was up to my discretion. Should we take our leave, or will we discuss business?”
The air in the room felt warm and stuffy, ready to ignite at the smallest spark. At least they had gotten this far without any incidents, but in order for his plan to work they needed to get further and Darien needed to be the face of reason and calm. He counted to three in his head and then forced his shoulders to relax, breaking the stare with Gregory and holding his hand out to the seat as he took his own. Gregory obliged, sitting down at the table. Alyssa followed suit while Hales excused himself to maneuver around the group and sit on the bed next to Felicity, despite her obvious discomfort.
“I told you both about the agency that’s been spying on shifters in general and keeping tabs on us, collecting information. They have files on so many shifters, from the Shadows, the Arm, and independents. The amount of information they’ve collected and are collecting is monumental. I only had a brief glimpse at it and even that was frightening. I copied a couple of files to show you what I’m talking about. You’re going to see that not only do they analyze you and keep track of your actions, they have recommended assignments.”
Darien turned on the tablet and opened up the first file, showing Bridget’s picture and dossier. Both of the other representatives leaned forward, reading the fine print on Bridget’s file as Darien scrolled through it. He didn’t bother to hide any of it from either of them, figuring that there was no point in that now. He let them see that Bridget worked with the agency and during that time, she had orders to use her abilities to infiltrate both the Arm and the Shadows. It also went into detail about some of the experiments she was subject to. The last part of the file was filled with several gaps as she disappeared from their radar and went on the run.
After reading the file in its entirety, Alyssa and Gregory both looked up at Darien and he knew that he had their full attention. He picked up the tablet and held it close to his chest as he accessed a hidden file.
“This is your profile, Alyssa. I didn’t read through the entire thing, but I thought you might want to see just how much information they have. I think the most important part is the line that indicates your suggested affiliation.”
Before he finished speaking, she snatched the tablet out of his hands and began reading the file on the screen. Her finger swiped up several times as she scanned the entire thing. Gregory turned his head and watched her reactions with interest as she was engrossed in the file. When she reached the end, she let the tablet rest against the edge of the table in her hands as she lifted her gaze and her eyes unfocused. Darien reached over and removed the tablet from her hands, closing down the dossier and opening another hidden file.
“And this is yours, Gregory.”
He waited until Darien handed the tablet over and then scanned through it while glancing down without lowering his head. Despite his cool demeanor, there were a couple of places where an eyebrow lifted, betraying his surprise. If Darien wasn’t watching him so close, he probably would have missed the subtle queues. After a few minutes of perusing, he handed the tablet back. Darien closed all of the dossiers and rested the tablet on the table.
“I’ve read enough. You convinced me.”
“Me as well. How could they possibly get all those details? There’s information in there from even before I was showing any signs of being a shifter.”
“I don’t know how they got their information, or how they continue to get it. What I can tell you is that they are very powerful. From something that happened to me when I was under their watch, I think that they have the power to influence a colonel in the army and scare the crap out of a senator. And that’s just one example. How far their reach goes is something I can’t even begin to guess. I’m also pretty sure they have connections in both of your organizations, which is why I wanted you two here without telling any of your superiors.”
The adversaries glanced up and eyed each other from across the table. Alyssa was the first to move, reaching out her hand and extending it to Gregory. He let her stay there for a moment, watching her and refusing to move at first. When Darien shifted in his chair, Gregory reached out and grasped her hand giving it a squeeze.
“It seems like we have a mutual enemy that would be cause for setting aside our differences, for the moment. I hope you don’t get too comfortable with our current arrangement.”
“I wouldn’t dream of it. But for now, I think we both could do a little house cleaning.”
Inside his mind, Darien released a sigh and offered up a prayer of thanks to whatever deity was listening. Over his phone he heard Susan’s more audible response as she also let go of a long breath she’d been holding.
“Right, so now that we have that settled, we need to discuss what we’re going to do next. I figured that before you both head back to your respective headquarters, you’re going to need to know how far this goes and just how deep the infestation is rooted. I think we have an opportunity to at least get part of the information. The guy I met with, his name is Karl Astor. He’s currently meeting with a couple of other directors or something in Seattle at a safe house. There’s no way that I could get in there by myself, but with your help, it just might be possible.”
“Do you know where this safe house is?”
“I have some clues from the emails that I went through, but I was hoping that one of you might be able to help me track it down. Alyssa, Seattle was your territory for a while, wasn’t it? Do you think that you could help with this bit?”
Chapter 24
More than ever before, Darien felt like he was on the right path, that he was doing what needed to be done. If it weren’t for Alyssa’s help, he wouldn’t have any idea where to even begin looking, let alone narrowing it down to only a couple of possibilities. He was on the way to one of those possibilities now, a government installation. He sat in the passenger’s seat of Garth’s white corvette, watching the scenery pass as they wound through the streets of downtown Bothell.
“Watch it. I know you like going fast, but if we get pulled over by the cops it ruins our entire plan.”
Garth barked a laugh as he dropped a gear and screeched across two lanes of traffic to make a hard right turn. Darien felt himself pushed back into the seat as the corvette raced forward on the straightaway.
“I’m not worried about the cops. There’s not a cop car out there that I can’t outrun, at least not in this baby. I tuned her up myself. Did I ever tell you about the time I was down in Tampa, and the damn pigs laid out spike strips on the highway? That was a rush!”
“We’re here.”
Darien pointed to the entrance of the gun range they had decided to park at for cover while Darien scouted the facility. As they made the turn down the dirt road Darien closed his eyes and shook his head back and forth. Thankfully he wouldn’t have to listen to another one of Garth’s stories. The man seemed to live for a captive audience.
Garth locked the tires on the corvette, sliding to a stop in a parking spot right in front of the main office. Darien looked around. There were a couple of cars parked in front of the building, but just past the small office and shop was a gun range. Even with the doors and windows shut, he could hear the loud explosions of gunfire.
“All right, I guess it is time for you to do your thing. I figure I can get some rounds off while you go scouting. It beats just sitting in one place and waiting. That never really was my style and doesn’t sit too well with me. Where are you headed?”
“I’m just heading up the block to check on a couple of buildings at the top of the hill. According to Alyssa, it’s supposed to be some sort of FEMA station, or at least that’s what the public thinks.”
&n
bsp; “Text my cell when you’re done. I’ll have it on vibrate while I’m shooting. I can stay out here all day if need be.”
They both crawled out of the car, Garth walking up into the office to pay his dues and get access to the range. Darien walked along the length of the building, keeping an eye out to make sure no one was around. Satisfied that he was alone, he ducked around the corner and shifted into a hawk. He took off and was over the tops of the trees with a few strong flaps of his wings. He continued to climb, enjoying the feeling of the air as it whistled through his feathers. Locking his arms out and angling them just so, he could glide on the wind with almost no effort at all and felt weightless for a few seconds. With a sigh, he pulled his attention back and opened his eyes, looking down at the street below. Now was not the time to enjoy the flight, no matter how tempting it was.
From here it was easy to see the buildings that Alyssa had talked about. There were two of them, close to each other, with a large parking lot stretching around them. The entire area was closed off with a chain link fence that had barbed wire at the top. Several cars were parked in the lot, and Darien could even make out a couple of people walking into one of the buildings. Dipping his wings, he swooped down in circles, coming to rest on top of one of the light posts.
A couple of people pointed up at him, and one of them pulled out her cell phone to get a picture of him on her camera. He made a point not to stare in their direction. Hawks were somewhat common up here. As long as he didn’t behave unusually, no one would think much of his presence. Staring at humans and posing for their cell camera might qualify as unusual. Instead he let his instincts take over, reaching down and preening some of his feathers.
After a while, Darien felt the need to move. He’d been perched in one place for too long and that was bound to catch attention, especially if the people inside were watching and knew about shifters. He couldn’t stay here all day. With a screech, he flapped his wings and took off from his perch, flying in wider circles and looking for some prey. He was hungry. He might as well eat.
Some motion near the base of the trees caught his eye and he locked onto it immediately. A mouse scurried across the dirt and froze, almost as if it knew it was being looked at. Darien watched as the critter’s nose twitched but the rest of it remained still as a statue with one foot off the ground. Tucking his wings against his body, Darien dove towards the target, picking up speed and extending his wings at the last second as he dropped his feet. His claws closed around the small animal and he felt it twitch in his grasp. His feet closed tighter, without him even thinking about it, squeezing every time they felt a twitch. When the spasms stopped, he held on a bit longer, refusing to let go of his quarry in case it was playing dead.
Reaching down, he pried chunks of flesh loose with his sharp beak, lifting his head to the sky to ease the swallowing. It tasted warm and succulent as it slid down his throat. Darien continued to tear off pieces, gulping them down and savoring his kill. Only then did he loosen his death grip on his prey. He continued to hold one claw on the corpse so he could tear off chunks of meat.
Halfway through the mouse, Darien realized what he was doing. He shook his head several times and hopped away from the corpse, trying to think. He needed to keep a grip and stay focused. He was Darien, not a hawk. He needed to keep an eye out for Karl Astor and see if he was in this building. It was the only way they’d know if this was the right building, and they couldn’t afford to be wrong. When his eyes passed over the remains of his prey, Darien was tempted to go back and continue his feast, but he forced himself to look away and took off to the skies, making sure not to look down until he was circling well above the parking lot.
For a few minutes, Darien didn’t dare try to land. He had two reasons to keep to the skies. The first was he didn’t want to tip their hand too soon. The second was every time he thought of landing, visions of possible prey came to mind and he felt the urge to slip into hunting mode. The longer that he was in this form, the greater risk he was in. He kept saying his name over in his head, using it as a litany to remind him of his purpose.
His wings began to feel heavy and he knew he was going to need to take a rest. Darien circled down and soared through some branches, coming to rest on a thick one near the top of a tree, but not at the very top where he would be easily visible. He had a clear line of sight on the parking lot. He could look at every person who came in and out of that building. Even as the sun started to set and the light grew dim, he still had no problems making out faces of the employees.
His patience was rewarded when he saw Karl walk out of the office and make his way to a dark blue Camry. The agent tossed his briefcase into the passenger’s seat and drove out of the complex turning east on the road and heading in the direction of the highway. Darien took note of the license plate and repeated it to himself as he made his way back to the gun range.
By the time that he got there and shifted back into his human form at the side of the building, the sun was about to touch the horizon. Darien couldn’t see it because of the tree cover, but the sky was streaked with purple clouds that rippled across the sky. He walked around the building and went to the white corvette, texting Garth as he walked. As he leaned against the car, Garth stepped out of the office, waving to some people behind him and reassuring them that he’d be back soon. He unlocked the doors and crawled into the driver’s side. Neither of them said a word until they were off the gun range and back on the main road.
“Any luck this time?”
“We found him.”
“Well then, I guess it’s time to assemble the troops and let loose the dogs of war, no?”
Garth laughed as he dropped a gear and pushed the gas pedal down so hard that Darien reflexively grabbed at the door.
Chapter 25
The entire group of eight people was jam packed into one small motel room; most of them crowded around a computer showing an aerial map of the base where they knew Karl worked. Keegan and Vladimir were the only ones not in the densely packed crowd. The former sat on one of the beds, sharpening one of his knives while the latter stood at the door, blocking it with his sheer size.
“I’m telling you, we have to get inside. If we try to take Karl when he’s home, we don’t know if he’ll have what you guys need. I don’t imagine that he goes home every day with tons of top secret files on his laptop or whatever. I’d bet those stay at the office and are under lock and key. Not to mention, the other people that he works for and takes orders from are supposed to be there too. We need to get inside that building.”
“And as I have already explained to you, it’s walking into a hornet’s nest with no idea what the situation is. Look at the size of the building and look at the size of the parking lot. Does anything seem strange to you? There’s no way that many cars worth of people can work comfortably in a building that small. That means levels underground. We have no idea how many or how large they are. We should take your Karl Astor when he leaves work, when he’s home and thinks he’s safe. I’m confident that I can make him be more than forthcoming with any information we need. Hales can be very convincing.”
Alyssa growled across the table, catching Gregory’s attention and forcing him to look her in the eye.
“We agreed that we’d do this without your barbaric methods. That includes torture. If he‘s as connected as we think, do you really think you can break him and get him to tell us the truth? Are you that stupid?”
“You think walking blindly into a high security military facility is a good idea?”
“I wasn’t saying that.”
Susan slammed her hand on the table and every head turned in her direction. Even Keegan looked up from his maintenance to see what she was going to say. She eased her hand from the table and sat back in her chair, taking her time before she spoke.
“We all know that we’re going to need to enter the facility sooner or later. There’s no way around it. Even if we could get everything we possibly need from Karl, we’d still
need to see what’s in that facility for ourselves to see just how involved this entire operation is.” She raised her hand to keep Garth from interrupting her. “And even if we do manage to capture Karl and get him to cooperate, there’s no way we can walk in with him as a captive and expect to be able to just waltz in undetected. It seems to me we should focus on when and how we want to enter the facility, and stop wasting our time on ‘if’ we need to enter.”
Gregory looked away from her and turned back to face Alyssa and Darien. He shrugged and waved a hand in the air. Darien felt like it was the first time they were all on the same page since they agreed to this search in the first place.
“Susan’s right. We’ll need to get in there one way or another, and the best bet is to do it at night. Sure, the security will be a bit tighter, but it’s better than trying to waltz in when everyone is working. Unless you guys have access to fake IDs for this agency that none of us even know the name of. If you do, please let me know, because that would make all of this a lot easier.”
Darien’s attempt at humor was met with blank stares and at least one glare. So much for attempting to lighten the mood with sarcastic commentary.
“The only people who will be able to get in discretely would be Felicity and Darien. They can both shift into something small enough to sneak through windows or ventilation shafts. The rest of us are going to need to use the front door. Of course, we don’t all have to go in and put ourselves at risk.”
“I trust that you aren’t going to insinuate that my associates and I are left behind while you and yours raid the treasury, so to speak.”
“Of course she isn’t. You know her better than that. But her point stands, not everyone needs to go into the facility. It gets me thinking about something. Karl might prove useful. He’s the only one that we know of who works for the agency. Hell, all those other people could actually work for FEMA. But he doesn’t. If anyone would know the way to get into their base, it would be him.”
The Torn Soul (The Sheynan Trilogy Book 3) Page 19